A few weeks ago I bought this kitchen stool from an op-shop. 

After a couple of hours of working on it tonight, it now looks like this:
It was pretty easy, and looks soooo much better. 

I just pulled the old seat off, carefully unpicked all the vinyl, then used that to make my pattern pieces. I have used the Ladybug fabric made by Kristen and some natural coloured linen. I covered the fabric in iron-on vinyl (bought online from the US - so, so much cheaper than Spotlight) to make it more durable and easily washable. The hardest part was the piping - the plastic cord that was in the old seat was too short by about 6cm! I had nothing like it in my stash, so just had to make do without that 6cms.

Sewing

A friend from mother's group has just had a baby (Tia Jade), so I can finally give away some baby girl gifts that I have had stashed away forever (everyone keeps having boys!). The cosmonaut bunny was inspired by a pattern in this book. The dress is from a vintage petticoat pattern.

New Stuff

The postie brought me some new shoes this week (bought new on ebay for less than half the price I'd be charged in Australia ),and also some more fabric for my stash.


I dropped into one of my favourite op shops today - very spur-of-the-moment, as I only had loose change in my purse. Perfect timing, as someone brought out a box of goodies that seemed to have my name on it!After 8 days of gastro in the house (my daughter and I; Ollie was thankfully spared), it has turned out to be a good week. Nothin' like new stuff to make you feel better!

Op Shopping

We have done heaps of op-shopping in the past week. This is one of my favourite buys of the week:

I have also found heaps of kids and teens books. I think I have purchased about 40 books just this week!

Ollie and I made a deal on Tuesday that if he slept in his cot all night (rather than waking in the night to come into my bed!), I would take him to a farm. Last night he finally did it, and the first thing he said to me after I got him out of bed this morning was "Ollie go to the farm?". So to Chesterfield Farm we went! Not the most picturesque farm we could have gone to, but Ollie had a great time feeding the goats and chasing the sheep (and being chased by sheep -  "No eat Ollie's back" he yelled at them as they followed us). Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no pics!

Tunnel Of Love

348 times today: 'Look! Mum! Ollie in tunnel!'. Give me strength....

Baking

What better way to make someone feel better than to drop off some freshly baked goodies!

Gingernut Biscuits

1 cup caster sugar           2 tbs melted butter

1 egg                                 2 tbs golden syrup

2 cups SR flour                3 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon   white sugar, extra

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Roll into small balls, then coat in white sugar. Place on greased oven trays and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake at 200 degrees C for 10-12 mins.

I got the cupcake recipe from here. I added the zest of one orange and some fresh orange juice instead of the milk. I also used some fresh orange juice in the icing.

My young son was desperate to eat the biscuits before they were cooked. He totally distracted me by successfully using the potty, then as I was cleaning that up, he raced into the kitchen and jammed 3 uncooked biscuits in his gob! Cheeky monkey!

Trike

This is my first Gocco print on fabric. It took me a while to work out what I was doing - I was trying to print like you do on paper. Once I worked it out, I was very happy.

I'll probably get more use out of the gocco for fabric painting than anything else. So much better than painting it all by hand like I used to do....

This tee and a few others are in my etsy shop now.

My new toy

Oh my, how much do I love this! Not too sure why I needed to have one, but it was a definite need rather than just a desire...I had it for 3 days before I had a play - I just didn't know where to start! I was up until the wee hours of the morning designing and printing this little kokeshi, inspired by one I found in an op-shop this week. 

I think she's pretty cute.